LEAD: Apple Computer Inc. is expected to lay off 400 to 500 employees this week as part of an effort to control expenses, industry executives said. Apple’s growth has slowed, partly because of an industry slump and partly because its product line lacks competitive inexpensive personal computers.

Users of Microsoft’s 3D simulation platform have been rocked by news that the company has laid off off or reassigned most of the of the platform’s developers. However, Microsoft is refusing to comment on the future of the software.

Microsoft may have just accomplished what the WashTech labor union tried to do for years — motivating its workers to band together and fight for their common interests. At least, that’s the aim of a new site called MSRateCuts.org, which objects to the pay cuts expected to result from Microsoft’s decision to reduce the rate it pays the agencies that provide many of its temporary workers.

Temp giant Volt informs workers it will make Microsoft pay cuts

[...]

Volt Workforce Solutions, believed to be the largest provider of Microsoft temporary workers, informed them tonight that it will be cutting their pay by 10 percent as a result of the Redmond company’s decision to reduce the amount it pays employment firms. Volt joins most but not all of the other firms in deciding to pass some or all of the impact of the cuts on to their workers.

Many of these temporary workers may also be foreign, i.e. those who are in essence cheaper because they don’t receive benefits (no entitlement) and are not receiving any protection from workers’ unions/regulations. it’s the perfect prey for exploiters of labour — get but hardly give.

Regardless, Microsoft continues to be scrutinised [1, 2, 3, 4] for being the top user of H-1B visas, as reported by IDG:

Microsoft Corp. was the top U.S.-based recipient of H-1B visas in 2008, receiving approval for 1,037 visas, slightly more than in 2007.

Bellini writes that the company is not likely to take further expense reduction moves – the company basically said exactly that at the meeting yesterday – and adds that “Microsoft is braced for further deterioration of the macro environment but plans to invest in its products to realize leverage once the market turns around.”

The lunacy of the EPO with its patent maximalism will likely go unchecked (and uncorrected) if Battistelli gets his way and turns the EPO into another SIPO (Croatian in the human rights sense and Chinese in the quality sense)

Another long installment in a multi-part series about UPC at times of post-truth Battistelli-led EPO, which pays the media to repeat the lies and pretend that the UPC is inevitable so as to compel politicians to welcome it regardless of desirability and practicability

Implementing yet more of his terrible ideas and so-called 'reforms', Battistelli seems to be racing to the bottom of everything (patent quality, staff experience, labour rights, working conditions, access to justice etc.)

"Good for trolls" is a good way to sum up the Unitary Patent, which would give litigators plenty of business (defendants and plaintiffs, plus commissions on high claims of damages) if it ever became a reality

Microsoft's continued fascination with and participation in the effort to undermine Alice so as to make software patents, which the company uses to blackmail GNU/Linux vendors, widely acceptable and applicable again